We are now at the half way day and we could all use a couple of days off. There is no rest for the wicked I fear, with every day bringing more work to do than there are hours in the day to do it in.
On this day, the first major accomplishment was getting out of bed. The second major accomplishment was pulling the sediment traps out of the mesocosms and pondering what to do with them. Some how that, along with all the filtration of aggregate samples and picking of copepods, managed to take up the whole day and half the night.
Aug 14 2012a- The post marathon work session, post soirée breakfast was a relatively unattended affair.
Aug 14 2012b- Marja going for a stoll as she mixes up an electrode calibration solution.
Aug 14 2012c- That bright yellow thing in the sky. Could someone turn it down a bit?
Aug 14 2012d- Julia getting ready to pick copepods.
Aug 14 2012e- Annick always seems to be doing something. If she is not filtering samples, she is helping you with what you are working on, and when she is done with that, she is labeling sample bottles and tubes to be ready for tomorrow.
Aug 14 2012f- Today we pulled out the sediment traps for the first time. Here is the first one (of 20).
Aug 14 2012g- Gingeringly bringing a trap across the mesocosm raft to the boat.
Aug 14 2012h- Morgane catching the weight used to keep the trap vertical, before it smashes on something. Beer bottles and sand were the only items at hand out here that could be used as weights.
Aug 14 2012i- Getting excited about the aggregates in the bags.
Aug 14 2012j- Trying to take pictures of them.
Aug 14 2012k- Checking out all the aggregates in all the bags.
Aug 14 2012l- I was quite surprised by how white the aggregates were. Usually they are greenish.
Aug 14 2012m- Not impressed with all the water in his boots.
Aug 14 2012n- Quite pleased, however, with our haul of sediment traps.
Aug 14 2012o- The sediment trap weights stacked up on the deck, beginning their wait for the return of the sediment traps (they need to be emptied).
Aug 14 2012p- Getting ready to carefully lift the sediment traps out of the boat and into the red box and then from there somehow get them (mostly one by one) to the car. Then they will be gingerly driven up the hill to the lab, all of us cursing every single pothole in the dirt road between here and there. And there are many.
Aug 14 2012r- The guardian of the sediment traps will now be let out of the car, now that we've made it up the hill and over all the potholes.
Aug 14 2012t- Richard pondering how the sediment splitter fits together.
Aug 14 2012v- It's a pretty cool device. The funnel goes on this end to maintain a constant flow of water into
the splitting device so that as the carousel spins around, all the
bottles receive an equal amount of sample.
Aug 14 2012w- Testing it with distilled water. It seems to be working.
Aug 14 2012x- But the first step in this involved process is to reduce the amount of water in the samples down to less than 500 millileters... which required letting the particles settle for 5 hours then siphoning off most of the water. Richard did the first few, then Annick and I (both of us vertically challenged) spent the next several hours finishing the lot.
Aug 14 2012y- The first one! We'll let that settle overnight, then siphon off more water and put it through the splitter.
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